The immediate former Industrialization Permanent Secretary (PS), Dr. Francis Owino, who has been reassigned to the State Department for Fisheries, Aquaculture and the Blue Economy has his work well cut out.
Dr. Owino re-assignment comes at a time when the country has been keen on tapping from the Blue Economy as the next frontier of growth and prosperity.
Underscoring how much the ‘Blue Economy’ (BE) had become a priority for Kenya in the recent years, the government hosted the first-ever global ‘Sustainable Blue Economy’ conference in November 2018 with support from Japan and Canada, where about 16,000 delegates drawn from all over the world participated.
Key political messages that came from Kenya included the need to mobilize financing for the industry; creation of a blue economy and people-centered strategies on sustainable development; streamlining gender equality in the industry; and strengthening science and research, among other measures to awaken the giant.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has cited the shrinking of land-based resources with a rapidly rising population in Kenya as reason good enough for a prudent government to lay more focus on resources spread in the ocean with an area of 245,000km2, 42% of her total land area that makes Kenya a maritime state.
Dr Owino is expected to work closely with Ms Nancy Karigthu, PS in the State Department for Maritime and Shipping Affairs, which is charged with the responsibility of developing industry’s human resource to help the country in exploiting the Blue Economy.
The government restructured Bandari College in 2018 into Bandari Maritime Academy (BMA) to offer skills needed to exploit BE. The industry has been struggling with a shortage of personnel due to the prohibitive costs of training abroad, which has made many students to shun careers in the industry.
Selection of students for BMA will now be done by Universities and Colleges Placement Service with students benefiting from Higher Education Loans Board (HELB). The facility has an annual capacity of admitting about 2,000 students. The Bandari College was uplifted into a maritime academy in 2018.
As one of the initial steps towards putting in place mechanisms to meet its expanded mandate, BMA has started the journey to develop the Institution’s Strategic Plan 2021-2025.
BMA Has identified the urgent need to build human resource capacity in such areas as; seafaring, port operations, ship operations; commercial and maritime.
